Texas catcher Reese Atwood has been named one of the three finalists for the prestigious USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award, the organization announced Monday.

Atwood is just the second Texas player to earn one of the three spots as a finalist for the award, joining former Longhorns pitcher Cat Osterman, who is the nation's only three-time winner after claiming the honor in 2003, 2005 and 2006.

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Atwood, a sophomore, has already broken school records for home runs (22), RBIs (88) and total bases (154) in a single season while helping the Longhorns to the top of the national polls as well as the NCAA Tournament’s top overall seed. She also leads the team in batting average (.433) and slugging percentage (.901).

Atwood joins two pitchers — Stanford's NiJaree Canady of Stanford and Oklahoma State's Lexi Kilfoyl — as finalists. Atwood has faced both Canady and Kilfoyl this season; she was 1-for-4 with a home run and two RBIs in a 4-3 loss to the Cardinal in March and was 1-for-6 in two games against Kilfoyl and Oklahoma State.

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The player of the year award is voted on by previous award winners, coaching representatives from 10 Division I Conferences in the 10 USA Softball regions as well as media members. The voters do not factor in stats compiled in the NCAA Tournament, which began this past weekend.

The player of the year announcement will come prior to the Women’s College World Series, which starts May 30 in Oklahoma City.

Texas (50-7) won the NCAA Tournament’s Austin Regional this past weekend and will host Texas A&M in a best-of-three series this weekend in the super regional. Stanford will host LSU and Oklahoma State will host Arizona.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas softball's Reese Atwood one of three finalists for national award